History WMG / RedDwarf

He and Hologram Lister found a way to re-open a dimensional tear, explaining, from "Back to Earth," Rimmer's return and Kochanski's continued absence.

This book establishes that Lister now considers the Dwarf his home rather than Earth so a dying dream or Heaven would look like the ship rather than Earth.

The first Kochanski (Clare Grogan) and the second Kochanski (Creator/ChloeAnnett) are not only physically different (explained due to [[TheOtherDarrin Grogan giving up acting and being replaced by Annett]]), but they're very different personality wise too.

* This makes sense when you consider that the Kochanski in series six was not actually the real Kochanski though, it was only a psiren impersonating her, through reading Lister's memory of her. It makes sense that Lister would remember the series 1-2 Clare Grogan incarnation of her, if that's the memory he has, even if the Inquisitor's erasure had restored her back to the series 7-8 Chloe Annett incarnation instead. Remember that Lister and Kryten were originally set to be erased before they outwitted the Inquisitor, and were then sent to a timeline they had never actually lived. While they were able to restore the timeline itself back, they still had the same memories of all the events that had happened to them, which Rimmer and the Cat lacked (and thus, in Lister's case, he would remember the series one replacement Kochanski when the series six psiren read his mind).

* 7) Lister ends up having a romance with this Kochanski (both the local Lister to her time period, who ends up being the Lister throughout the show, and the Lister from the future). History again plays out up until “Out of Time” (except this time with Clare Grogan Kochanski) and eventually the two versions of Lister encounter each other (when the Lister using the time drive, now a brain in a jar, has to travel to the future).

* One entry earlier in the page talked about how the change between Clare Grogan and Creator/ChloeAnnett's Kochanski existed in universe because of the Inquisitor's meddling. So the cosmetic 'differences' between the Lister in one timeline and that of another could somehow be explained as one having one Kochanski's genes, and the other with the other. Assuming Annett's Kochanski was the original one, who then got replaced with Grogan's by the Inquisitor, Lister as he is then was still born from Annett's genes. When the Inquisitor finally got round to judging David Lister, he 'corrected it' by replacing him with that of a Lister born of Grogan's genes... thus the different appearance. Two questions arise though. Why would changing Annett to Grogan in the first place not affect Lister's appearance right away? And secondly, what actually is the extent of the Inquisitor's powers in changing every last person in time and space, when you take into account that by changing one person you effectively screw up the existence of literally all of their descendants. Does he judge one person independently and override the cosmetic appearance of their descendants? But that would be absurd because then genetics would be completely moot. Or does he see into his own future, and know that he's already going to deem certain of those descendants unworthy, and thus doesn't bother to modify their appearance in line with their ancestor as they'll be changed eventually anyway? The extent of his skillbase is never really expanded on. Either way, Red Dwarf timefucks aside, I like to assume that the alternate Lister is the son of Grogan's Kochanski, and the one we know is that of Annett's. It just makes sense, to me.

* Taking this thought on a stage, the C.P. Grogan Kochanski of that universe had, for whatever reason, failed an encounter with that universe's Inquisitor, and was wiped for history. The Creator/ChloeAnnett version was the "sperm-in-law" she was replaced by.
** FridgeLogic, the Chloe Annett version is actually the original who was replaced by C.P Grogan's version by the Inquisitor. When Lister tricked The Inquisitor and all his work had been undone, she was then restored to Chloe Annett's original version. The C.P Grogan verison the psiren transformed into in Series 6 was just because Lister remembered her like that, and his mind was unaffected by the timeline restoring itself. Mind blown yet?

The first Kochanski (Grogan) and the second Kochanski (Annett) are not only physically different (explained due to [[TheOtherDarrin Grogan giving up acting and being replaced by Annett]]), but they're very different personality wise too.

* I wouldn't even go that far. It's simply that the series seven version that Chloe Annett plays is from an ''alternative universe'' that the Inquisitor had not yet reached.

* Series eight aired in 1999, Back To Earth aired in 2009 (ten years gap, which would easily justify the 'nine years later' on screen text, with just one year out). Well what people don't seem to be remembering is the shelved Red Dwarf movie, the one which had to stall it's production. It was written, storyboards were created, and the cast even got together for read throughs back in 2001. Filming was actually intended to happen in Australia in 2005. But the movie fell short because Doug Naylor didn't have enough funding. It's storyline involving a race of evolved Homo sapienoids exterminating all humans, with Red Dwarf being the last in it's chain of victims, was to serve as a sequel to series eight. It featured what appears to be the hard light hologram Rimmer up to series seven (rather than the alive one from series eight), however series eights Chloe Annett's Kochanski, Creator/NormanLovett's Holly, and Captain Hollister appear in the cast list. Likely it would give the 1999-2009 continuity gap an explanation, and serve as a pseudo series nine. Or at least, itself and Back To Earth together would achieve something near to it.

* 1) Originally, Kochanski was the Chloe Annett version.
* 2) In “Out of Time” the crew discovers the time drive.

* 4) Lister, being in love with Kochanski, decides to travel back in time so he can be with her. He can only be with her a short while before the radiation leak kills off the crew but he can keep travelling back and being with her again (he just has to ensure he doesn’t encounter himself, or to somehow eliminate his past self from the equation).
* 5) He goes back and he’s with her again but he starts to get sick of her. He’s idealised her in his head but he really wants to be with a woman more like him. Due to the time drive’s corrupting influence, he decides he has a right to “fix her”.
* 6) Lister travels back in time and arranges for Kochanski’s father to have a nice working class job in Scotland hoping to change her upbringing. Instead, her mother leaves him, hence explaining why when he does have a daughter and name her Christine (and she does pursue the dream he always wanted for his daughter of being a navigation officer on a mining ship) she doesn’t look the same.

* One entry earlier in the page talked about how the change between Grogan and Annett's Kochanski existed in universe because of the Inquisitor's meddling. So the cosmetic 'differences' between the Lister in one timeline and that of another could somehow be explained as one having one Kochanski's genes, and the other with the other. Assuming Annett's Kochanski was the original one, who then got replaced with Grogan's by the Inquisitor, Lister as he is then was still born from Annett's genes. When the Inquisitor finally got round to judging David Lister, he 'corrected it' by replacing him with that of a Lister born of Grogan's genes... thus the different appearance. Two questions arise though. Why would changing Annett to Grogan in the first place not affect Lister's appearance right away? And secondly, what actually is the extent of the Inquisitor's powers in changing every last person in time and space, when you take into account that by changing one person you effectively screw up the existence of literally all of their descendants. Does he judge one person independently and override the cosmetic appearance of their descendants? But that would be absurd because then genetics would be completely moot. Or does he see into his own future, and know that he's already going to deem certain of those descendants unworthy, and thus doesn't bother to modify their appearance in line with their ancestor as they'll be changed eventually anyway? The extent of his skillbase is never really expanded on. Either way, Red Dwarf timefucks aside, I like to assume that the alternate Lister is the son of Grogan's Kochanski, and the one we know is that of Annett's. It just makes sense, to me.

* Taking this thought on a stage, the C.P. Grogan Kochanski of that universe had, for whatever reason, failed an encounter with that universe's Inquisitor, and was wiped for history. The Chloe Annett version was the "sperm-in-law" she was replaced by.

* Series eight aired in 1999, Back To Earth aired in 2009 (ten years gap, which would easily justify the 'nine years later' on screen text, with just one year out). Well what people don't seem to be remembering is the shelved Red Dwarf movie, the one which had to stall it's production. It was written, storyboards were created, and the cast even got together for read throughs back in 2001. Filming was actually intended to happen in Australia in 2005. But the movie fell short because Doug Naylor didn't have enough funding. It's storyline involving a race of evolved Homo sapienoids exterminating all humans, with Red Dwarf being the last in it's chain of victims, was to serve as a sequel to series eight. It featured what appears to be the hard light hologram Rimmer up to series seven (rather than the alive one from series eight), however series eights Chloe Annett's Kochanski, Norman Lovett's Holly, and Captain Hollister appear in the cast list. Likely it would give the 1999-2009 continuity gap an explanation, and serve as a pseudo series nine. Or at least, itself and Back To Earth together would achieve something near to it.

* Perhaps Hollister was looking to humiliate Rimmer for jamming a pencil up his nose, so he assigned Rimmer a trivial task that he coudn't do but whatever subordinate he had would show him up, but Hollister forgot he hadn't yet assigned Rimmer a replacement for Lister.

* It's called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect Westermarck effect]]. Also, they're the only humans within 3 million years, so desperation.

Rimmer wants to be female but can't conciously bring himself to even think about it. Only when he can justify it to himself somehow out of neccisity does allow this element to surface. This is also part of Rimmer's extreme dislike against the overtly hypermasculine Ace Rimmer (who himself may be aggressively overcompensating.)

* The virus from "Confidence and Paranoia" was actually magically created, most likely a failed experiment intended to trigger latent magical abilities in Muggles (probably for the same reason as Magneto's mutation machine in ''Film/XMen1'').

** The virus from "Confidence and Paranoia" was actually magically created, most likely a failed experiment intended to trigger latent magical abilities in Muggles (probably for the same reason as Magneto's mutation machine in ''Film/XMen1'').

* Similarly, Kryten's TechnoBabble explanation for how the Matter Paddle worked was nonsense; it's actually a [[{{Magitek}} computerized]] Portkey. (He claimed it transmits you as ''light beams'', but then they use it to travel '''200,000 light years''' in a matter of moments. If it did indeed transmit you as light, Lister and Cat would have had to wait 400,000 years for Kryten to send the thing back.) Indeed, this would also explain why splitting the signal in "Demons and Angels" produced duplicates with the "good" and "bad" attributes of the original; the original spell simply wasn't intended to copy the travel subject that way, and Lister and Kryten -- meddling in forces they don't understand -- accidentally trigger unintended side-effects, much like when Hermione drank Polyjuice Potion containing what turned out to be a cat hair.

* Similarly, Kryten's TechnoBabble explanation for how the Matter Paddle worked was nonsense; it's actually a [[{{Magitek}} computerized]] Portkey. (He claimed it transmits you as ''light beams'', but then they use it to travel '''200,000 light years''' in a matter of moments. If it did indeed transmit you as light, Lister and Cat would have had to wait 400,000 years for Kryten to send the thing back.) Indeed, this would also explain why splitting the signal in "Demons and Angels" produced duplicates with the "good" and "bad" attributes of the original; the original spell simply wasn't intended to divide the travel subject that way, and Lister and Kryten -- meddling in forces they don't understand -- accidentally trigger unintended side-effects, much like when Hermione drank Polyjuice Potion containing what turned out to be a cat hair.

Who was extremely careless with their magical belongings. The "mutated" developing fluid from "Timeslides" was really the potion wizards develop photos in, which causes them to come to life. (I mean, what makes more sense -- that normal, physical developing fluid could "mutate" to the point that it develops properties which blatantly defy the laws of physics, or AWizardDidIt?) Similarly, Kryten's TechnoBabble explanation for how the Matter Paddle worked was nonsense; it's actually a [[{{Magitek}} computerized]] Portkey. (He claimed it transmits you as ''light beams'', but then they use it to travel '''200,000 light years''' in a matter of moments. If it did indeed transmit you as light, Lister and Cat would have had to wait 400,000 years for Kryten to send the thing back.)

* It's likely that he wouldn't consider it to be a proper officer. In "Balance Of Power", he specifically states that the rank of Catering Officer, essentially a commissioned chef and the rank that Olaf Petersen held, is not a real officer. For Rimmer, it's engineering, navigation, or nothing. However, this WMG does fit in with the implication during the books that he does have a certain talent for graphic design.

Rimmer can be quite meticulous in organizing things and will happily force his subordinate to conduct, long boring inventories. If anything, Rimmer should have considered applying to be a logistics officer. By no means would he go far in the position, he's a petty, uptight smeghead who drives away everyone he gets around, but he'd be an officer.

Rimmer can be quite meticulous in organizing things and will happily force his subordinate to conduct, long boring inventories. If anything, Rimmer should have considered applying to be a logistics officer. By no means would he go far in the position, he's a petty, uptight smeghead who drives away everyone he gets around, but he'd be an officer.

As for what happened then, Lister, Kryten, Kochanski and the Cat would all have been in the mirror universe. However, if they learnt Rimmer had returned to the collapsing ship, they would probably have come back to try to get him (Kryten could presumably rebuild the prism laser in the other universe). Rimmer would be dead, hence being brought back as a hologram, but our heroes would have Red Dwarf to themselves again (and the crew may have all been killed off anyway, if the microbe travelled with them to their escape crafts).

It doesn't make sense as to why Rimmer of all people would be assigned to fix the Drive Plate. It's supposed to be trivially easy and Rimmer's incompetence is well-documented, and in one alternate universe where Kochanski was put in stasis instead of Lister, it still killed everyone, despite Lister being qualified to fix it. However, Red Dwarf is incredibly huge. What if the Drive Plate was in a relatively isolated part of the ship, and Rimmer was only there as part of the fallout of his mental breakdown? In the Kochanski-verse, Rimmer didn't go to the isolated part of the ship because he had access to his favourite method of de-stressing: blaming Lister. In the main timeline, someone discovers the problem too late to get anyone else down there, if the drive plate isn't fixed right then and there, there will be a catastrophic reactor meltdown. Rimmer had the time to attempt to fix the drive plate, then return to be dressed down for failure. Why they didn't try to evacuate is unknown, but in one alternate universe, Captain Hollister did attempt to flee in an escape pod, only for the thing to malfunction, so it's probably due to overall incompetence, both in failing to get a proper evacuation order and for not maintaining the escape pods. Pre-cuts Red Dwarf was able to manage an evacuation, and even they left behind large numbers of people.